Buzz Worthy News: Watchman Edition July 13th 2015

13 July, 2015 Buzz Worthy News 19 comments

BWN-bee-graphicWelcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome and not at all well-written. Need your YA industry news? Never fear, Kat Kennedy is here to give it to you straight.

In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: Go Set A Watchman news, a message from District 13, a three star review is apparently an embarrassment and much, much more!

Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two. For new releases and cover reveals of all the best Young Adult fiction, check out our Tuesday post: Hot New Titles.

 


Book News


Go Set A Watchman News

US_cover_of_Go_Set_a_WatchmanIn case you’ve somehow missed all the Buzz, To Kill a Mockingbird has a sequel – Go Set a Watchman and there has been all kinds of massive promotion around it. PBS has updated its documentary from 2012 with all kinds of people like Oprah Winfrey, Roasnna Cash and Tom Brokaw.

You can also now read the first chapter for free here.

But, perhaps the most alarming thing about Go Set a Watchman is the alteration to one of the literary world’s most beloved characters, Atticus Finch – with him reportedly becoming racist later in life.

All this came about when the New York Times broke the international embargo on the novel in order to review it and its contents.

Others are quick to point out that this has been the real life experience of many civil rights activists.

The Rev Al Shapton on Atticus Finch:

“When I was a kid and Dr King was dealing with raw racism in the south, the northern liberals supported him. But when I came of age and started fighting racism in the north, some of the liberals who supported the generation before me were the ones I had to fight in police brutality cases … Finch reflects the reality of finding out that a lot of those we thought were on our side harboured some personal different feelings.”

Sentiments about Go Set A Watchmen have been tense with many arguing the agent and publisher are taking advantage of Harper Lee. Robert McCrum had this to say about it:

“As a fan of Mockingbird, I will probably not be alone in regretting her publisher’s decision to subject a frail old writer and her lost manuscript to the unforgiving climate of the contemporary book world.”

It seems Go Set A Watchman was written before To Kill a Mockingbird. In fact, To Kill a Mockingbird was written on the advice of an editor who thought it would be a stronger story.

SOURCE


Malala Yousafzai Celebrates 18th Birthday with a Hashtag

Malala_Yousafzai_at_Girl_Summit_2014What were you doing for your 18th birthday? Joyriding? Bar hopping? Reading great books? Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel prize wining laureate and all around awesome human being, was starting a hashtag, #BooksNotBullets.

The idea for the hashtag was to pressure politicians to divert eight days’ worth of military spending into education. Something her blog calculates would result in $39 billion raised for educating children as opposed to drone striking their cities.

The instagram photo she put up on the day, which pictured her holding The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, garnered 16.9K likes.

“I want world leaders to choose books over bullets. It may look as if I am naive. I’m still a teenager. But I measure the world in hope, not doubt.”

https://instagram.com/p/4wphB8JOJR/

SOURCE


Entertainment News


A Message from District 13

It errrr… It’s certainly something. Lots of soldiers in white doing marching things with their guns. Then a shot of Katniss and well, yeah. Not much to say, really. *shrugs*

SOURCE


Fake Lemony Snicket Trailer Goes Viral

Amassing almost 3 million views for a teaser trailer, it seems the new Netflix series is off to a positive start. Only thing is, the trailer’s not real.

Posted by Eleanor Poe, the clever video fooled a lot of people before Netflix finally revealed that the teaser trailer was fake.

There is no current release day set for the premiere of the series so fans will just have to rewatch the 2004 movie adaptation starring Jim Carrey.

SOURCE


Goosebumps Movie Trailer is Out

So the Goosebumps movie is happening and it actually looks kind of funny. Not that I’ll actually watch it, but still. Jack Black plays the role of the Goosebumps author, R.L. Stine while Dylan Minnette plays Zach and Odeya Rush plays Hannah.

The movie is slated for release in October 16. When Zach stumbles in Stine’s house to try and rescue Hannah, he accidentally unleashes every monster that Stine ever wrote. Screenrant has a list of the 25 spotted out of the close-to-200 monsters that are possible.

SOURCE


The Rosie Project Adaptation to star Jennifer Lawrence

The Rosie Project, a best selling Australian book is set to be adapted into a movie and one of the lead stars has already been announced as Jennifer Lawrence. Just a side note, you should try reading YA Aussie Lit, because it’s so cool. It’s what all the cool kids are doing.

As of yet, there’s no news on the lead role of Don Tillman and there’s been no director attached to the project. The script was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber.

The story is about a socially awkward Genetics professor who performs an experiment to find the perfect girl for him. However, a bartender by the name of Rosie Jarman, who is the opposite of the survey qualities he requires, comes along and blows that all out of the water.

This book screams RomCom where Jennifer Lawrence excels having won an Oscar for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook and just being all around awesome.

SOURCE


Controversies


Three Star Review an Embarrassment

When Books For Life posted their 3 star review of blog tour book, A Will of Iron by Linda Beutler, they probably didn’t expect what happened next.

https://twitter.com/oregonclematis/status/618173809976176640

It might have been bad enough if it had just been left there. But someone else piped up on the authors behalf, managing to make the ingratitude of the author seem a million times worse.

You can read the rest of the somewhat baffling exchange here which has been storified thanks to Tez Miller.


19 Responses to “Buzz Worthy News: Watchman Edition July 13th 2015”

    • Kat Kennedy

      I wish the movie seemed a little darker than it is. Goosebumps was seriously scary when I was a kid. The movie looks a little tame.

  1. Fangs for the Fantasy

    Y’know it’s odd but I think I’ve seen more authors get… agitated over a 3 fang review than I have over a 1 fang review. It’s like “you hated it? Fine, at least your feel SOMETHING!” but a response of “hey it was alright but not amazing” really stokes the rage.

    Of course I am still amazed that our biggest author objections came after a 3.5 fang and a 4 fang review…

    • Kat Kennedy

      That truly is amazing! I think it’s because they find it hard to believe that someone didn’t feel anything for their work? I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of author reactions to three star reviews that I just don’t get. Probably never will.

  2. Kate Copeseeley

    You’re so concise, Kat! I don’t know how you do it. Whenever I do these I’m soooo wordy. Maybe I’m too opinionated.
    Great post, as usual!!

  3. Kari Parker

    After reading about Watchman, I’m convinced it is not a “sequel” as it has been portrayed/promoted as. As Watchman was written first, it’s almost like To Kill a Mockingbird recycled from the remains of Watchman, reusing the parts of Watchman that were salvageable while changing other elements (like a dislikable Atticus Finch). Honestly, it seems unlikely that both of these novels could exist within the same fictional world.

  4. La Coccinelle @ The Ladybug Reads...

    “This review is an embarrassment” is not exactly a clear statement, either. Is the writer embarrassed because, upon further reflection, she realizes she wrote a mediocre book? Is she embarrassed that someone gave her a three-star review? Is she implying that the reviewer should be embarrassed?

    If anything, I’d say that the author’s comment is the embarrassment. It seems that, despite copious cautionary examples, some writers still haven’t learned when to keep quiet about negative reviews. (Psst… the answer is “always”!)

    • Kat Kennedy

      Yup. except it’s not even a negative review. If you read the original review it’s alarmingly positive. Like, more positive than I would be in any circumstance!

  5. Georgette

    That “3 star review is an embarrassment” pisses me off. I’ve had my little book blog for two years now, and I’m proud of it. I’ve never heard such idiocy. Until now, sadly.
    As for the Rosie Project casting Jennifer Lawrence, I love it. I like her and she’d make a great Rosie. One of my favorite books in years past.
    Goosebumps trailer is friggin’ cool!
    “To Set A Watchman”, I’m still excited. The hell with the mayhap and mayhem

    • Kat Kennedy

      I need to read The Rosie Project. It’s nice to see some aussie lit getting some love. And I hope JLaw will be good in it. Tell me what you think of Go Set a Watchman! I’m interested to hear!

  6. Carina Olsen

    Stunning post Kat 😀 Thank you for sharing about all these awesome news. <3 I also think Goosebumps looks pretty awesome. I read some of the books way back in school, before 7th grade :p Remember too little of them, hmph. But yeah. I don't like Jack Black, so not sure I want to see it :p Well. Maybe 🙂 And oh my gosh, about that review. A three star review is not a bad thing. At least not to me. Ugh. I don't like it when authors are being mean :\ Thank you for sharing about it all sweetie. <3

    • Kat Kennedy

      I’m not the biggest fan of Jack Black. I think the only thing I liked him in was The Holiday. Thank you for commenting, Carina. You’re so awesome!

  7. Lyn Kaye

    *sigh* Someone needs to take away a certain author’s keyboard. Not the best way to market yourself.
    Ugh.